Captain Picard's secret mission fails, leading to him being captured by Cardassians. As he is tortured by his captors, Captain Jellico and the Enterprise attempt to prevent war with the Cardassian Union.

Contents

Summary

Teaser

Jean-Luc Picard is drugged and questioned by GulMadred. He sits in the middle of a dark room answering in a monotone. Picard reveals details about his mission and the personnel involved. Madred then asks his prisoner about the defense plans for Minos Korva. Picard truthfully states that he has no knowledge of such plans.

Jellico then reveals the mission plans to his first officer and counselor and reveals that the USS Enterprise-D is supposed to rendezvous with the away team in eight hours. Since the negotiations have taken longer than expected, he will send Riker in a shuttlecraft.

In the interrogation chamber, Madred unshackles Picard. They briefly discuss the ruins of the First Hebitian civilization of Cardassia Prime. The ancient tombs contained artifacts made of a rare, breathtaking stone called Jevonite, but were plundered by impoverished Cardassians. When Picard requests to be returned to his ship, Madred informs him that he is considered to be a criminal because he was captured attempting to invade a secret Cardassian facility. Madred offers Picard the chance to make his trial and eventual punishment civilized, provided he agrees to divulge information about the Federation's defense plans for Minos Korva. Picard reiterates that he has no knowledge of any such defense plans. Madred rejects Picard's denials, informing him that he was lured into a trap, precisely because the Cardassians believe that, as Captain of the Enterprise, he would have full knowledge of the Federation's defense plans.

Madred's guards promptly enter and drag a struggling Picard to the center of the room. His captor warns him, "Wasted energy, Captain. You might come to wish you hadn't expended it in such a futile effort." Picard protests that torture is forbidden under the terms of the Seldonis IV Convention, governing the treatment of prisoners of war. His pleas are ignored, however, as Madred uses a PADD to lower a steel suspension rack from the ceiling above him. Before continuing, Madred asks Picard, "Do you have any physical ailments I should know about?" He then approaches the Captain with a knife which he says is made of Jevonite. As he uses the knife to cut Picard's jumpsuit, Madred tells him he will no longer have the privilege of rank or individuality. From now on, Picard will be referred to only as "human." The guards pull Picard's clothes down to his ankles and restrain his wrists in manacles which connect to the steel rack above. The Captain is left naked and suspended, by his wrists, above the floor.

Act Two

First Officer's Log, supplemental: I have returned from the rendezvous point in the Lyshan system with Doctor Crusher and Lieutenant Worf. Captain Picard's fate is still unknown.

In sickbay, the away team is treated for minor injuries. Jellico orders Riker to analyze the team's tricorder readings, but the first officer wants to begin planning a rescue mission for Picard. Captain Jellico believes such an attempt would be foolhardy.

With four lights shining behind him, Gul Madred begins questioning Picard again, and informs him that while he was drugged, a small device was implanted in his chest. Madred demonstrates the device, causing Picard to fall to his knees in pain on even the lowest setting. He asks Picard how many lights there are behind him, wanting him to respond with "five." He says there are four and receives another painful shock.

Gul Lemec shows Captain Jellico, Commander Riker, and Counselor Troi a PADD showing Captain Picard's original, more civilized interrogation. Jellico denies Picard was acting under his orders, and Lemec suggests they will execute him. Riker reminds the Gul about the Seldonis IV Convention which is similar to the Geneva Conventions of 20th and 21st centuryEarth. This, however, would be almost like a declaration of war. Lemec alternately offers to release Picard in exchange for a Federation withdrawal from the sector. Jellico agrees to discuss the proposal with AdmiralAlynna Nechayev. After Lemec and his aides leave, Jellico says that he's going to recommend against agreeing to Lemec's proposal, essentially abandoning Picard. Riker becomes upset at this, demanding that Jellico acknowledge that the mission was under Federation orders, thus Picard would be protected under the Seldonis IV Convention. Jellico sharply rebukes him stating it would show weakness on the Federation's part. Riker sharply objects to the captain's plan stating that one of the roles of a first officer is to point out mistakes by his or her commanding officer. Jellico will not have any of it and relieves Riker of duty, with an added threat of confinement to quarters.

Act Three

With Commander Riker's position open, Captain Jellico temporarily promotes Lieutenant CommanderData to the position of first officer. Data (wearing a command red duty uniform), Jellico, and Lieutenant Commander La Forge try to determine why the Cardassians would want to capture Picard. They decide that the Cardassians may have been interested in the defense plans for Minos Korva, knowing that the Enterprise would be assigned as command ship for the sector. Jellico orders La Forge to conduct a discreet scan of Lemec's ship to determine where they may have been recently.

Meanwhile on Celtris III, Gul Madred is speaking with his daughter about whether Humans have parents. Picard is sitting in a spotlight in a red robe-like gown. Picard tries to get under Madred's skin by questioning his motives for bringing his daughter to such an installation, let alone allow her to see her father interrogating a prisoner. They banter back and forth about military power and its role in their civilizations. Madred tells his prisoner that because of the Cardassian military, his daughter will never go hungry. Picard turns this on him by saying, "Her belly may be full, but her spirit will be empty."

Madred continues with his questioning about the lights. Picard replies, "What lights?" This infuriates Madred; he shocks Picard for his obstinacy.

Gul Madred awakens Captain Picard from his dream of his family in France. Madred compliments Picard on his strong will and informs him that he is free to go. Picard stands slowly and heads toward the door. Madred claims he will just have to get the information from Dr. Crusher. Picard chooses to remain as a prisoner since he knows Crusher has no knowledge of operations.

Some time later, Madred and Picard share a small meal of taspar eggs. Picard is disgusted at first, but since he is virtually starving, chooses to eat it to survive. The captor tells his prisoner the story of his childhood on the streets. He was beaten and his arm was broken at the age of six for a pair of taspar eggs. Picard uses this to his advantage by thinking of Madred as that child who couldn't protect himself. Madred, angry, asks Picard by name about the plans for Minos Korva. Picard points this out and adds, "There are four lights." Madred shocks Picard and the prisoner collapses in agony.

While the shuttle is being prepared, Captain Jellico discusses the mission with Lt. Cmdr. La Forge. La Forge claims that he could complete the mission successfully, but that the best person for the job is Commander Riker, which does not sit well with Jellico.

Act Five

Jellico talks to Riker about his piloting skills, and that every shuttle pilot on the ship labels Riker as the best. Jellico and Riker drop their ranks and exchange their dislikes for one another, expressing their disapproval for each other's roles. Jellico will not order Riker to pilot the shuttle, to which Riker smugly replies "Then ask," after which the captain does and Riker accepts. Jellico begins to leave in a hurry, and Riker adds "You're welcome," which leaves a disgusted look on Jellico's face.

Navigating through the nebula is a daunting task, with one near collision. When Geordi asks if he wants to know how close they came to disaster, Riker simply replies with "No," and continues the flight. After Riker and La Forge lay the mines, Captain Jellico initiates red alert and begins negotiations with Gul Lemec. The furious Lemec demands that the Enterprise withdraw, but Jellico interjects saying that he has mined his ships, his finger is on the button, and Lemec is in a very bad position. Lemec believes Jellico is bluffing, but the captain orders Worf to show Lemec that he is not by detonating a smaller mine. The room Lemec is in shakes as if it had been hit with a low-yield phaser discharge. Jellico reveals to Lemec that there's a much larger one sitting on his hull that will destroy his ship. Jellico tells Lemec that the Cardassian fleet may leave the nebula one by one only if they eject their primary phaser coils – thereby leaving them at the mercy of the Federation for the return trip home. Lemec objects, but agrees before Jellico orders Worf to detonate the bigger mine. Jellico then gives the Cardassians a final demand... the immediate return of Captain Picard.

Picard gets the final word.

Meanwhile, on Celtris III, Picard awakens and tries to smash the control device used in his torture. Madred chides him rather gently for this, citing that he has many more. Madred then wrongfully informs his prisoner that the Cardassians have invaded Minos Korva and the Enterprise is burning in space. Gul Madred reminds Picard that the Federation will not look for him since the word will be that he died with his crew on the Enterprise. Madred offers Picard the opportunity to live a life of comfort and scholarly reflection, but at a price. All he has to do is admit that he sees five lights. Before Picard can answer, Lemec enters and complains that Picard should have been ready to transfer already. A ship is ready to take him back to the Enterprise. Before he leaves, Picard holds firm and announces that there are four lights.

Back on-board the Enterprise, Jellico transfers the command codes back to Captain Picard without the ceremony from the previous command transfer. With a quick glance at Troi's standard uniform, Picard retires to his ready room and the Counselor follows. Inside, Picard tells her of the choice he faced. Although there he didn't tell Madred there were five lights, he was willing to and would have told Madred anything to make the pain stop... and the worst part is that, right at the end, Picard admits that he actually saw five lights.

Memorable Quotes

"From this point on, you will enjoy no privilege of rank, no privileges of person. From now on, I will refer to you only as Human. You have no other identity!"

- Gul Madred as he begins to torture Picard

"How many lights do you see there?"
"I see four lights."
"No. There are five."

- Gul Madred and Jean-Luc Picard beginning the lights mind game

"I know nothing about Minos Korva."
"But I've told you that I believe you. I didn't ask you about Minos Korva. I asked how many lights you see."
(Picard stares at the lights intensely, then pauses and glares at Madred)
"There are four lights."
"I don't understand how you can be so mistaken."
(Madred shocks Picard)

"When children learn to devalue others they can devalue anyone, including their parents."
"What a blind, narrow view you have. What an arrogant man you are."

- Jean-Luc Picard and Gul Madred

"Shall we begin again? How many lights are there?"
"... What lights?"

- Gul Madred and Jean-Luc Picard

"You are...six years old...weak and helpless! You cannot...HURT ME!"

- Jean-Luc Picard, resisting Gul Madred

"Let's drop the ranks for a moment. I don't like you. I think you're insubordinate, arrogant, willful, and I don't think you're a particularly good First Officer."

- Captain Edward Jellico, expressing his feelings toward Will Riker

"Well, now that the ranks are dropped, Captain...I don't like you, either. You ARE arrogant, and closed-minded. You need to control everything and everyone. You don't provide an atmosphere of trust, and you don't inspire these people to go out of their way for you. You've got everybody wound up so tight, there's no joy in anything. I don't think you're a particularly good Captain."

- Jean-Luc Picard, exhausted but defiant, shouting at Gul Madred before returning to the Enterprise

"What I didn't put in the report was that at the end he gave me a choice - between a life of comfort or more torture. All I had to do was to say that I could see five lights when, in fact, there were only four."
"You didn't say it?"
"No! No. But I was going to. I would have told him anything. Anything at all! But more than that, I believed that I could see five lights."

Abatermarco did intensive research, including consultations with Amnesty International, on the psychology of torturers, torture methods, and the experiences of survivors to inform the episode. Amnesty supporter Patrick Stewart was delighted at the first draft, but was concerned when he heard of the rewrites. Taylor recalled, "Patrick got very concerned because he assumed that meant we were going to back off from the very strong nature of it. He said, 'I don't want that to happen. I think that this hits it head on. I want to do that. I don't want this to become another talky episode where we simply talk about and around something and don't really tell it the way it is." These concerns were shared by Taylor, who remembered that Stewart was thrilled at the finished script "because we didn't back off an inch. It was very strong stuff." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)

In The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, Volume II (p. 278), author Phil Farrand notes the similarities between the torture scenes in this episode and George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, the hero Winston Smith is tortured by O'Brien of the Thought Police. O'Brien keeps asking, "How many fingers do you see?" while holding up four, and the expected answer is "five." Unlike Winston, Picard never outwardly cracks to his tormentor, but in the final scene, Picard admits to Deanna that he actually saw five lights, ultimately.

This episode received a very minor trim when shown in the UK by the BBC, eliminating one of the more intense torture scenes.

Set designer Richard James sought to avoid similarities to Closet Land in the design of the interrogation chamber. "I wasn't familiar with it and I didn't want to be influenced by that because I was fighting Silence of the Lambs at that time as well. I really wanted to try and keep myself open to my own kind of vision of it and as it turned out, the lighting played a very important role in what I was planning to do with it and the starkness of it. I wanted it to feel big as opposed to feeling like they were stuck in a small dungeon-type thing." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)

David Warner took over the role of Madred on three days notice and, though he had previously appeared in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, he knew nothing about the Cardassians from The Next Generation. As he recalled in a 2011 interview; "I took over on three days' notice. It was another makeup job. It was with Pat Stewart, who's an old colleague. It was great to be a part of that. I thought, "Oh, I've done two of the others, the old classic ones, and here I am in The Next Generation. I'll go for it." So I wasn't aware of it, of the Cardassians. I didn't know their history at all, except of course, that they weren't very nice." Due to the short time in which he had to prepare, Warner also did not have enough time to memorize his lines. As such, they were written down on cue cards. As he commented; "There was too much technobabble and dialogue that doesn't come naturally to me. So they wrote everything up for me. I don't mind people knowing this. Every line I said, I actually was reading it over Patrick's shoulder or they put it down there for me to do it." [1]

A line cut from the final episode stated that Starfleet had also sent the USS Aries, USS Berlin, and USS Sutherland to assist the Enterprise-D, but they were three days behind.

Reception

Entertainment Weekly ranked this episode (combined with Part I) #10 on their list of "The Top 10 Episodes" to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. [2]

Michael Piller remarked, "I can't imagine a better show than 'Chain of Command, Part II' and it had no tricks or whiz bang stuff and it was one of the least expensive shows of the season. David Warner was sensational and Patrick Stewart was even better. I don't think there's been a better show in the history of this series, and certainly there was not a better hour of television on that year." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)

Jeri Taylor agreed, "It is not possible that there are five better male actors in this town than Patrick Stewart! It's probably his finest performance – he literally threw himself, physically and mentally, into that." (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)

Taylor noted that some viewers protested at the graphic nature of the torture scenes. "They didn't want to see Patrick Stewart or anybody else writhing in pain. They felt that it was excessive, that it went too far and that it was disturbing to children. I can't disagree. It's certainly very intense for children. I wish there had been a disclaimer." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages)

Ronny Cox greatly enjoyed the role his character played in the two-parter. He commented, "[J]ust about everything on the ship was between Riker and Jellico. And I loved that aspect. Gene Roddenberry didn't like conflict between the characters, so my guy was the first guy to come in and sort of ruffle everybody's feathers. I liked that aspect of him. I also liked that he was a by-the-book guy. I loved it when Picard comes back to the Enterprise at the end and Jellico says, "Here's your ship back, just the way you left it... maybe a little better."" He elaborated, "I never saw him as a villain. He was a bit of a hard-ass, but not a villain. I thought he dealt with the Cardassians really well and I thought he ran the Enterprise really well, though in a completely different style from Picard." He also joked, "I've done a lot of things in my career, and I've got people in my family who think that's the only thing of any worth I have ever done. I'm also a trivia answer. I'm one of the few actors, other than the show's regulars, to have done a captain's log on TNG." He concluded, "But that episode had a lot going for it. Patrick was brilliant. So was Jonathan [Frakes]. So was David Warner. And the story was compelling." [3]

In a review for Star Trek appearing in Slate Magazine, writer Juliet Lapidos argued with its "standard Hollywood torture scene," the film failed to live up to the intellectual standard set by "Chain of Command, Part II", whose treatment of the issue she found both more sophisticated and pertinent to the ongoing debate over the United States' use of enhanced interrogation techniques. [4]

Apocrypha

In the comic storyStar Trek: The Next Generation - Perchance to Dream, Picard was forced to enter his own mind to stop a telepathic weapon called the Chova – the mind meld with Sarek, the imprinting of Kamin's memories, and his time as Locutus of Borg granted him the makings of a multiple personality disorder, and his multiple personalities were able to overwhelm the Chova and thus neutralize it to "cure" the other victims. During this time, he used the symbol of four lights as a memory of a previous victory to allow him to maintain his strength even when Locutus attempted to take control of his body.

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